The "Cut-Up" Technique

The "cut-up" technique of composing prose originated with Burroughs, and it was a spin-off of his unusual method of putting together his most famous novel, Naked Lunch, from snippets of notes he wrote down and then pieced together. His follow- up novels, The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, and Nova Express, were constructed from chunks of various writings which he had literally cut up and then randomly paired into a new work. In doing so, he came up with such lines as the following: "He rents an amphitheater with marble walls he is a stone painter you can dig can create a frieze while you wait" and "The knife fell - The Clerk in the bunk next to his bled blue silence - Put on a clean shirt and Martin's pants - telling stories and exchanging smile - dusty motors," both from Nova Express. Once...